Holiday Love
by Behind The Screen It Falls
Summary: A JuliaxElliot fluffy one-shot story inspired by the holiday season! Rated T just in case. Please review


**A/n: Hi there! So, I don't own Harvest Moon, ok? Good. Well, this is a one-shot with JuilaxElliot that was inspired by the holidays. )  
Sadly, they are over XD. But anyway, please enjoy and please review!**

Elliot pov

I sighed as I stared out of my frosted window. The trees outside were almost bare, their brown, stick arms were glistening from the almost transparent icicles that covered each branch. I randomly place my hand on the window, the coolness seeping into my hand, as if the frost was transforming my hand into ice. I tapped my foot nervously, listening to the thumping and pitter patter of my feet and heart. It was 3pm on a Winter day so cold that you would think that the whole world was covered with a layer of utter coldness. I was hesitantly getting half way out of my chair, then sinking right back into it. I glared at the snow covered streets that were lightly tapped by ice, thinking of what to say to her. I knew that she would be at the beach on Sprout Island, near the dock. Every day, near sunset, she would stand there in the sand, watching the sun kiss the salty waters goodbye, while the moon and his entourage of stars creep up into the newly dark sky, opposite of the vanishing sun. She wouldn't be there too much longer, the sun was preparing for the fall into darkness. I needed to get my feelings off of my chest, I clenched my left fist. My family was holding a holiday party on the day before the last day of the year, which was the next day. I couldn't invite her to the Starry Night Festival, I was too afraid that she wouldn't accept my feelings and laugh at me, like Natalie does. I knew that I had to gather all of the courage that I could muster to invite Julia to the party. Since her and Natalie are friends, she probably won't say no, but inside it could be as if she said yes to me. I had feelings for her; at the time I had no words to say so. I was always so flustered when I saw her; I could never get around to saying what I had to tell her. Then again, I happen to get flustered quite often.  
'Tell her, Elliot!' I thought, finally releasing the tension in my clenched fist. I rippled my net opened fingers slowly. I kept repeating that thought in my mind, almost chanting it in my mind. After listening to my internal chant for a few moments, I arose from my chair in a large rustle, making a bit of a fuss. I power walked to the door and yanked my red coat from the coat hooks. I threw it on and opened the door. The brutally, bitter, Winter wind blew at my face, howling like a lone wolf. Mom peered at me from the kitchen.  
"Sweetie, where are you going? In this weather?" She asked, motherly and stern.  
"Ah..." She caught me off guard. "To ask J-Julia..." I got a bit nervous, don't ask me why, and adjusted my spectacles.  
"Oh! Kyaa! You are so cute, go get her!" She turned back to the kitchen, her salmon hair bobbed back into place as she whistled a cheery tune.  
I took in a deep breath, as if I was going to dive head first into a pool of regret or relief, I just didn't know which, yet. Then, my boots made two stomps onto the snow outside if my door. I was out of my warm house and into the cold, and I was ready.  
I hoped.

Julia pov

The waves fascinated me to no end. I could drown my sorrows, happiness, and life into them, without even touching a single wave. I could just look into them, watching the orange sky and sun reflect onto the waves, and they would slowly dive in the water, daily, to reunite with the waves. I went to the beach year round; weather should never stop you from enjoying yourself.

I was always waiting. For anything, for something. A new pair of boots, a toy when I was younger, or new animals to come to the shop. But lately, I was waiting for an invitation, to go with a certain someone to spend the Starry Night Festival with. I was way too shy to ask them myself, I didn't know how they felt about me. I got the feeling that they didn't like me in the same way; I went through the whole day before the festival without even talking to them. It was snowing terribly on the day of the Starry Night Festival, Mom wouldn't even let me outside, not even to see the waves. From my room I could hear them call to me, I longed to watch them. I guess this makes me kind of a loner, but whatever, the next day, when I could go outside once more, was great. It felt good to be back to them.

The day before the New Year, I stood at my regular wave-watching spot, losing myself in the waves while everything else just went away. Just me and the crashing waves, splashing softly. Even the cold went away for awhile. As I was in a state of zen, my eyes peacefully shut, and then I heard a meek male voice. I was completely removed from my meditation, utterly confused at the voice and just a slight bit mad. I kept my eyes shut, trying to ignore the voice, but it was impossible. I couldn't even recognize it that well.

"J-Julia?" The meek voice repeated. I couldn't bear the suspense, I thought I knew who it was, and so I opened my eyes and turned to find Elliot. His soft, orange hair blew in the Wintery gusts of wind.

"Ah, Elliot, how are...things?" I smiled at him, flashing my perfectly white teeth. His cheeks were a pale pink; I couldn't tell if it was a flustered blush or the Winter wind's slap mark on his face.

"Good..." He fidgeted with his broad rimmed spectacles."It's, ah, nice weather today...huh?" He put his hands in his pockets, as if he was going to look cooler like that. The brave fronts he always put on never worked on anyone. He always gave off a shy, baby-kitten-that-was-just-thrown-into-a-bucket-of-cold-water aura. Plus, Natalie always throws him down whenever he gets to the top of his mountain of pride.

"It's nice if you love cold, below zero, cloudy days with harsh gusts of wind and occasionally snow"..." I responded to him, sounding as cold as the Winter wind that blew against us. He grew silent in complete embarrassment. I smirked.

"Well...you don't seem cold..." I was wearing my usual work clothes, a blue plaid, flannel bolero tied up where I always tied it, in the front, a black turtle necked jacket that I happened to leave halfway open, cream, wool gloves that I got from Mark, the rancher on Ranch Island for my birthday. Everyone said that he was signaling something to me, but I don't like him back, I have someone else I love, so I just accepted them as a regular gift, and nothing more. I also wore my red and brown cowboy boots and black miniskirt, with cream tights underneath. Elliot wasn't wearing his apron that day; he must've had a day off. He wore some plain, beige cargo pants and a red Winter coat zipped up to his neck, which made him look pretty childish, it was as if he had no neck.

"Yeah," I finally replied, after a moment of thinking."The cold doesn't affect me that much" I stuck my hands into my jacket pockets, feeling the warmth surround my hands. Elliot looked at the ground, obviously thinking for a moment. Then he looked up and me, and opened his mouth, splurting out words rapidly.

"Listen Julia, I really would like it if you could come to my family's holiday party tomorrow at our house at 6pm-that's if you want to come I mean you don't have to go and it's fine if you can't come-"

"Sure, I can most likely make it. It's ok if my mom comes too, right?"

"Yeah..." Elliot looked at the floor hurriedly. "Listen, I-I have to go, so I-I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." I smiled at him, this time I could clearly see that he blushed.

Elliot pov

I was out of breath as I walked back home. I was so excited; I finally was strong enough to talk to her, more precisely, to ask her out. Kinda. She didn't know that I liked her; I had to find the right time to tell her that. _Maybe at the party..._

At home, I didn't tell Natalie that Julia was coming over, knowing her; she would probably tell Julia that I like her. And so would Mom, those girls really are the same people, just different ages. So I told Grandpa, the only person in the house who really wouldn't care. "Hey Grandpa?"

"What's up, squirt?" he wrinkled his brow at me.

"Julia and Mirabelle are coming over tomorrow too. For the party."

"Sure sure." He handed me a box."Now go give this to Mark!"

"But it's my day off-"

"Day off, schamy off. Just go." So I left the house once more, sighing as I reunited with the cold.

Julia pov

"I bet the party will be so much fun!" Mom was ecstatic for the party, Felicia was her best friend on the Island, and Natalie was my closest friend too. So you can see how we weren't too surprised about the invitation, it was just who invited us was a surprise. I exhaled as a puff flew from out of my mouth. The sky was black, yet white snowflakes fell softly to the ground. Some of the snowflakes were hugging strands of my hair. The lights from the street lamps and homes luminated the dark streets, making them much more welcoming.

The doorbell of Taro's house sounded old and creepy. It was scary, but I knew that what lied beyond the door wasn't. I heard the sounds of rushing footsteps behind the door. The doorknob rustled right and left, finally the door flung open.

"Hi!" Everyone, Felicia, Taro, and Natalie chimed happily while Elliot mumbled. We all stood staring at the family across from us, in a slight daze and with stupid smiles on our faces. Everyone probably thought the same thing as me, AKWARD. Finally, Taro took a step back into the house and the other 3 followed. Mom and I stepped in after, and the awkward silence barrier was broken.

"Hey Julia!" Natalie threw her arm around my shoulder.

"Hey Mirabelle!" Taro smiled his old man grin.

"Ah, Felicia, how are you?" Mom chimed in.

"Mirabelle, I haven't seen you since this morning!" She joked.

"H-Hi guys..." Elliot mumbled.

The house was so festively decorated, it looked as if holiday spirit puked all over the house, spitting out perfectly placed holiday decorations. Mistletoe hung over the doorway inside and outside. I dropped our present to them under their tree, our orange wrapping paper sticking out like a sore thumb with all of their red and green wrapping paper. The tree was lavishly covered in tinsel and ornaments, its green branches almost swamped by the decorations that graced the tree. The tree was real, you could tell because you could smell it throughout the whole house, but it was only an underlying scent compared to the smell of home cooking. _I wish that I could cook..._I thought. Natalie was amazing at cooking, since she hung out with Pierre so much, it's not official, but they are totally dating, Natalie just doesn't want to tell anyone yet.

We all found ourselves a seat at the big dinner tables, I sat in between Natalie and Elliot, while Mom, Felicia, and Taro sat across from me. Natalie and I talked about everything under the sun, Elliot only peeped into the conversation occasionally, but he wasn't very involved. Felicia was absent constantly, always getting up to pull more food out from the kitchen. She was like a magician, pulling out dish after dish. It wasn't too much food though; Felicia just loved making mini plates, then refreshing them when necessary. Don't ask, she's just odd that way. She finally sat down for good when we all were eating dessert. Natalie and Pierre made a triple chocolate mousse cake with homemade vanilla icing. You could just taste their hidden love in it, which left an unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth, but if you forgot about who made the cake, it was really good. We all sat their quietly, enjoying the rich tastes in our mouths, when Felicia spoke up suddenly.

"So Julia," Felicia stated after gulping down some milk."I don't mean to be nosey, but when is you and Elliot's first date, hm?" I froze in a shocked position, my fork levitating a few inches from my mouth. Everyone's mouths were gapping open, including mine.

"W-What?" I asked her, still in complete shock.

"You know, yesterday-oh, he didn't tell you yet, did he?" She covered her mouth and blushed, then a quiet laugh emergered from her.

"M-MOM!" Elliot's face was tainted red from embarrassment, and there was an underlying tone of anger.

Natalie sighed, "I knew it!"

I pulled myself up, my palms firmly pressing against the warm table, my eyes cast downward as my hair covered my embarrassed face."I-I'm going outside, for a moment..." With that I excused myself from the table, picked up my coat, and ran outside into the Winter's arms in a blur.

My feet pounded against the slippery streets. My vision hazed from the tears that slightly filled my eyes. I wiped them away; I couldn't be weak like that in front of her. I couldn't believe it, I, for some reason, wanted to believe it, but I couldn't think straight right then.

Elliot pov

The door slammed shut as we all sat in awe. "Mom, I can't believe you!" I was pretty darn mad, and embarrassed."I need to clear things up-"

"But there's nothing to clear up, you like her." Natalie smirked.

"You like Pierre; I'm not going off and telling him that!" Natalie blushed as I snapped back at her.

"H-Hey! I don't like him; he's just teaching me how to cook."

"Whatever." I stormed out of the house after her, hoping it wasn't too late to catch up with her.

Outside the snow was still gently falling in the darkness. In the blurry distance, I could see a shadow, a figure in the dark, running towards Sprout Island. I had a feeling it was her, and I had a feeling as to where she was going.

She was standing, facing the waves with her hands in her coat pockets when she finally stopped and I caught up with her. I walked up directly behind her, as I did the day before. "Julia, listen, I can explain." She turned around at the sound of my voice, her cute face was tainted pink and the teal was leaving her eyes as tears.

"There's nothing to explain, Elliot..."

"Y-Yes there is!" I took in a deep breath to prepare for my long explanation. "I really like you Julia; I really can't deny this fact." She moved in a bit closer to me."I just couldn't find the right words or the right time to tell you, I knew that it would probably result in endless teasing from Natalie." Then I really began to ramble. "And I didn't know about how you felt about me, I still don't know how you feel about me, I don't know if we're even friends any more, or if you hate me! I wouldn't know what to do if you did like me, or if you didn't like me, I was just so confused. I finally worked up a bit of courage to ask you to the party, but I still thought it was a bad time to tell you how I felt about you, because I thought that the party would be terribly embarrassing for both of us then. I'm just sorry and I hope that we're still friends-" I was cut off by the feeling of Julia's lips forcefully pushed up against mine. She grabbed my shoulders tight and pulled me in, removing the void that was between us all of that time. I was completely shocked; I got the feeling that Julia was too. We were frozen in that position, as if time stopped ticking, but only for us, everything else went on without us noticing. The waves still crashed softly and the snow kept falling down, some snowflakes were collecting in Julia's hair, and the same went for me. It was a beautiful moment that went by too fast.

I was silent with shock once she pulled away from me, I thought that I understood what she told me through her actions, yet she still replied to me with language."I've been longing to do that..." A single tear trickled down her pink face." I could never tell you my feelings...I-I was scared that you wouldn't accept it." My face noticeably blushed and Julia released a meek giggle."You're really sweet, kind, and cute, I can't help but love you!" We both nervously laughed as we stared into each of our eyes.

"You took the words right out of my mouth." I smiled at her adorable face.

"I guess we should head back?" We turned to walk away and my hand hesitantly and slowly moved towards Julia's hand, which was dangling by her side. She grabbed my slow-motion hand before it reached its destination and we walked back to the house, hand in hand, as the waves splashed goodbye.

**A/N: I hope you liked it! O#O Please review!**


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